2013 Wireless LAN Survey

Kurt Marko02/28/13

2013 Wireless LAN Survey

Dense flash memory and advanced batteries made smartphones and tablets feasible; wireless networks make them useful. Given the cost of cellular access, the multiplying number of mobile devices and the imminent ratification of the superfast 802.11ac specification, we decided to survey InformationWeek readers about their wireless LANs today and plans for the future.

Among the 419 respondents to our InformationWeek 2013 Wireless LAN Survey, 89% use 802.11n technologies as a network access method for end users, up from 76% in September 2010.

Other data points:

> Nearly one-quarter of the 363 respondents using WLAN technologies say traffic volume has exploded over the last year.

> 45% have plans in the works to deploy 802.11ac gear on production networks and over half of those will move as soon as products are available.

> 37% see wireless replacing the wired infrastructure within five years.

> 34% have 25% or more of client traffic sent or received over wireless networks.

> 18% run legacy autonomous systems where each access point is configured independently and each makes all forwarding decisions; that’s down from 32% in our 2010 survey.

In this report we:

> Examine the business and technology trends pushing the move to wireless, like that superfast 802.11ac standard.

> Discuss features that make WLANs more secure and predictable.

> Provide recommendations for building, and more effectively using, a wireless client backbone that can adapt to skyrocketing traffic growth, changing back-end infrastructure technology and a dynamic mix of client devices.

Respondent breakdown: 34% have 5,000 or more employees; 21% have more than 10,000. Education, government, ­healthcare and noncomputer manufacturing are well represented, and 50% are IT director/manager or IT executive management (C-level/VP) level. (S6330313)